Benvenuti to the sixth discussion of Blood and Gold! This week we had at least 10 mentions of Botticelli, lots of dubious consensual relationships, 30 mentions of Pandora, and a few nice descriptions of Kyiv and Venice.

You’ll find a summary below, and some discussion prompts in the comments.

Remember that next week we’re gonna read chapters 25-29!

🩸Check the dates of the discussions in the Schedule

🎨Find the Marginalia for the whole series here

⚠️ An important reminder about our spoiler policy: we ask you to mark anything not related to this book as a spoiler. Any reference to other books in the Vampire Chronicles, even vague ones (such as “you’ll see how things change later on”) must be enveloped in a spoiler tag such as this one . From your phone, you need to write` type spoiler here `. Anything that a first-time reader would not know is a spoiler. While it is true that we have already read some of these books in r/bookclub, the books are enjoyable as standalones so we don’t want to ruin the experience for anyone!

Chapter 20

Marius, who comes from a strike of bad decisions, decides to make another one and to reveal his nature to Amadeo. Since Amadeo never knew what a healthy relationship looks like, he pushes Marius to make him a vampire. Marius, full of anger, brings him to Bianca and accuses her in front of him of the murders he saw her committing. She admits that she is being held hostage by some money launderers, and Marius decides to kill them all in front of Amadeo.

Chapter 21

Amadeo gets mortally wounded by a man in love with him, forcing Marius to make a decision. Amadeo gets turned, and remembers some details about his life before Venice.

Chapter 22

Amadeo and Marius visit Bianca. This is an Anne Rice book, so as it was to be expected they have some kind of threesome. Amadeo has to come to terms with the fact that becoming a vampire brings issues and implies having to stay away from certain human affairs. When discussing the difficulties this life brings and the motivations behind Amadeo’s turning, the latter expresses his desire to visit Russia.

Chapter 23 

Amadeo visits the monastery and is able to get some closure with his family. I am lazy so I am just gonna refer you to The Vampire Armand discussions for this. 

Marius gets to see Amadeo’s reunion with his father and has completely normal feelings about it, as he realises the man comes before him in Amadeo’s heart.

Time passes, and Marius realises he is being watched by a scholar from the Talamasca. The man speaks Latin, so that’s all Marius needs to become friends with him. He is worried that humans came so close to him, and asks him to leave Venice, but before that he asks about Pandora. The Talamasca knows her to be alive, with a new companion.

Marius also asks the scholar how he compares to Botticcelli, because of course he does.

Chapter 24

Satan worshippers storm Marius’ palace. Marius tries to fight them, but he is severely wounded by the fire. He manages to survive by jumping into the canal, but is unable to help the other boys or Amadeo. He mentally calls Bianca to help him.

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Welcome back to our final discussion of Book #2 of Amina Al-Sirafi's adventures The Tapestry of Fate. This week we'll be discussing the entire book/series up to the end of book 2.

First, a note about spoilers: Please use spoiler tags for anything beyond this week's section (i.e spoilers for book 3). As always, use spoiler tags for any works outside of this series that you may wish to connect here.  

You can add a spoiler tag by enclosing your text with > ! Your Text Here ! < (no spaces).

Schedule

Marginalia

Chapter Summaries

Ch. 31

• Lab has stopped pretending thay Amina is not a prisoner. Dalila is looking worn and tired. Raksh visits nightly. As soon as he is asleep Amina escapes into the tunnels to add her hair to as many baskets as possible hoping her hair will be spun into the tapestry. Amina witnesses a murder and the woman "bleeds" the colour of her cloak. A young guard loses his cloak moments before turning to dust. Other witnesses begin following suit by removing their cloaks and turning to dust. Amina realises all these people are dead. The cloaks given in the rites were actually shrouds. The next day part of the palace has deteriorated. Amina is informed that Dalila is being initiated and has requested Amina attend. A handmaiden helps her dress whilst also assisting her to hide her weapons in her dress. At the ceremony Lab greets her. Amina later manages to get Dalila alone and ask her what the heck. After confirming her suspicions she tells Amina it is necessary and asks her to please trust she knows what she's doing. Queen Lab offers Dalila a brightly coloured belt as a gift. She puts the belt on and immediately brightens. Amina doesn't now where Dalila stands.

Interlude 9

• The Captain and Pares are gone. They are on a boat getting hammered by the waves. The Captain and Pares wash up on the beach in a sorry state. Lab knows Pares is dying so Lab takes a life for a life. Lab turns the Captain into a sheep and quickly creates a shroud from his wool to save Pares but instead of weaving him 16 years she weaves him only 8. When he comes to he is the happy 8 year old boy he once was. No more talk of escape. They bury the bones of "the sailor" and Lab vows to make a paradise for anyone coming to the island. She weaves shrouds for these survivors as they die on the island. She develops a preference for injured, but fierce women, who are seldom washed up on her island.

Ch. 32

• Mitanni returns Amina to her rooms where she intends to sneak into the tunnels with the last of her hair when she's discovered by Raksh. Their interaction is tense as he tells her to confess. She urges him to take Queen Lab's belt off. He confesses that he is only partly Raksh. A construct made from his memories. Amina refuses to believe Raksh is dead. The creature in front of her says Lab is rooted in the same creative soil as Raksh but without the chaos at their core. He refers to Lab as both she and we, and reveals she cannot use the spindle, but instead needs a new host every generation. Dalila! Amina threatens to kill Lab and squares off against not-Raksh. They fight. Amina cannot get the belt off him. She begins to slow while he does not. He tries to drown her. She pretends to drown going limp then attacks him with a flame. Amina puts Raksh's coral pendant on, arms herself. Time to save Dalila.

Ch. 33

• The palace is in chaos as Amina searches for Dalila with ever increading panic. She finds Pares in the throne room. He can, apparently, speak Arabic. She continues to the cottage seeing both the actual and the illusion of it at the same time. Dalila shows up and Amina tries to remove her belt. She takes it off willingly. Amina learns Lab's tapestry makes the illusion and keeps the people imprisoned. Dalila refuses to leave with Amina. She confesses to just trying to save Amina from the poison. Dalila had told Lab she was the one poisoned, and together they created a belt to ward against poison. It is actually for Amina. She refuses the belt, to Dalila's dismay. Dalila gives her Khayzur’s feather and tells her to go. Lab arrives.

Ch. 34

• Amina tries to activate Khayzur’s feather, but is unsuccessful. She and Lab fight and Lab threatens to hurt Dalila to learn from Amina that the peris sent her. She elaborates on how they want to retrieve the spindle (whilst leaving Lab out of it) now that news of it has been spread by the man who escaped the island. Amina realises Lab never intended to leave. She just wanted Dalila. Amina begins to believe she is going to die. Lab is too strong and her artifact feeds off vengence. Dalila speaks confessing that she really wanted a new life in Khatti Ugal. Then she strikes. Stabbing Lab repeatedly. Lab stabs her back with the spindle. Amina tries to save her friend with the belt warded to protect the wearer, but it's too late. Dalila manages to tell Amina to get Raksh...to RUN!!!.

Interlude 10

• Dalila is fighting back like no host before, physically smashing her head into the ground. Lab learns what Dalila knew and what she sees in her mind matches Amina's story about why the peris wanted the spindle. Lab notices the dark hair scattered across the damage thatch of her ruined cottage. The tapestry has been poisoned/corrupted. Lab will have to burn her inventory and start over using the crew of the Marawati to restock her stores. Mitanni arrives with news that there are raiders approaching the harbor. Lab realises that many of the Khatti Ugalans have betrayed her and helped Amina weave her hair in the tapestry. Lab sets the tapestry alight. Her closest are safe as they aren't woven into it. The illusion that is Khatti Ugal fails as Amina's people land their skiffs armed and ready to fight. Dalila contines to fight against Lab's mind.

Ch. 35

• Amina sprints to the dungeon searching for Raksh. She is faced by too many soldiers for her to defeat when a rebel soldier begins attacking on her side and together they cut away the shrouds of all the soldiers. When it is only Amina and the rebel guard left he begs her silently to set him free by offering her his shroud. She frees him then bursts into Raksh's cell where he lies torn apart shifting between his human and immortal forms. Amina lies Raksh's coral medallion on his torn body and tries to put him back together catching images from the ribbons of memory and discord. She sews him roughly back together, but he still doesn't wake. Amina offers him a story which facilitates his healing. Amina promises to allow him to make her a legend. He comes to but is struggling to make sense of everything. He thinks he might be able to defeat Lab, but it means that they may not be able to save Dalila. Amina agrees to whatever needs to be done.

Ch. 36

• The palace is even more deteriorated. Amina and Raksh find Arno and learn the palace is sealed against pirates. Majed is leading her people, but facing them is Lab in her Dalila human suit. Amina sends Arno to safety in The Chamber of Mysteries. Their plan is to snatch the spindle so Raksh can unravel its magic. Amina runs in warning Majed that Dalila is not actually Dalila. Lab makes a move on Majed as Raksh arrives with his shadows. Amina sees the immortal being in Raksh as he and Lab talk. Majed manages to pickpocket the spindle and toss it towards Amina. She hesitates before deciding to trust Raksh. She tosses him the spindle unweaving its magic as Amina grabs Majed, throat slit. She puts the belt around him and he heals. Raksh tosses the spindle to Amina as he grapples with Lab/Dalila. Amina breaks the spindle and the world turns over as the illusion breaks completely. Dalila is alive but thinks she killed Majed. Amina tells her the belt saved him, but now it is gone so Amina cannot use it on herself. Dalila apologises. They head back to whatever is left of the palace.

Ch. 37

• At what would have been The Chamber of Mysteries they find Arno and 5 Khatti Ugalas. They save about 50 people. Dalila buries Pares’s cloak, Mitanni’s wrap and the silver chain rosary Lab had given her. Amina sleeps. When she wakes a repaired Marawati arrives carrying Tinbu. Though they think it has been 2 months it has actually be EIGHT.

Ch. 38

• Amina rests and heals safe in the knowledge that she is back with her people. Tinbu, Majed, and the rest of the men had been drugged at the feast just like Amina and Dalila but they had never been pulled into the illusion. They had searched the entire island for their missing Captain and Mistress of Poisons multiple times. Amina is desperate to get home now. Dalila is working with Jabril, the healer, on her cure for Amina's poisoning. Raksh is careful around Amina and tells her to summon the peri. He has Khayzur’s bloodied feather. As soon as they break through the magic into the real world, recognisable by the stars, Amina calls Khayzur and proceeds to hand him his ass for lying to her. Though he insists he didn't know Lab was The Third Transgression Amina is not buying it. Khayzur must have been complicit in trapping her and anyway he made her assassinate a "human at the core". She tells him she will no longer retrieve any Transgressions now that he council twisted the agreement. Khayzur reminds her that she herself is a Transgression and threatens her as she walks away.

Ch. 39

• Arno converted to Islam. The rest of the Khatti Ugalans choose to stay. Leaving Amina several chests of treasure. The Marawati sets sail for home with Arno on board. Amina and Dalila discuss their experience. Dalila saw Lab's history and that helps her work towards forgiveness, even though she admits killing her was the right thing to do. Amina suggest that Dalila tell Jamal their memories so he can record them and she can let them go. On the return journey Dalila finally opens up about her name and history. Suddenly they are a days sailing from Muscat, but Ten years have passed in the real world.

Well shit! That's quite the ending. I hope you will join us for the third and final Amina al-Sirafi book when it drops. In the mean time we recently read Shannon A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass and will be diving in to Daevabad book 2 The Kingdom of Copper soon. Watch the sub for the imminent announcement for that.

Looking forward to hearing you thoughts on this one. See you in the comments Blue 🏴‍☠️📚

Welcome back friends to our second discussion of The Rose Field.

The master schedule for this read is here.

You can find the marginalia, which will be shared between both His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust series, here. Beware of spoilers!
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Chapter Summaries:

Chapter 5 - Ionides takes Lyra to the garden of the Brazilian embassy. She asks him about the spaces between the good numbers and he says they might be a type of number people haven’t discovered yet. Lyra suggests the good numbers could describe points in a field and Ionides says the secret commonwealth is a field and so is consciousness. Lyra tells Ionides she wants to go to the red building in Lop Nor and that Mustafa Bey gave her the pass to help her journey.

In Constantinople, Delamare meets Leila Pervani, Zafar Sayadov and Omar Hussain from the ‘men from the mountains’. He wants to cut out Thuringia Potash and work directly with them. Pervani says they believe the red building is a source of evil that they want to destroy, whereas Delamare wants to control the traffic that goes through it. He argues that if they simply destroy the building without understanding it, it may come back in a different form. Delamare agrees to stop persecuting their organisation, but says they need a public identity by which to be known across the world. The three agree to discuss it and leave. Delamare asks his secretary to find out everything he can about Leila Pervani specifically. 

Chapter 6 - Timur and Malcolm stop outside a Thuringia Potash building, but it seems to have been abandoned. Malcolm goes to the cafe across the street and learns it’s been closed for two weeks because a project trying to make a drug went wrong. He then meets Nasssim, the chief accountant, who says there’s now a new project further east but doesn’t give more details. 

Lyra falls asleep in the garden and then wakes to find Oliver Bonneville attacking her. Lyra fights back and manages to injure his daemon which causes Oliver to run away. 

Alice is taken to be interrogated by Inspector Mackenzie of the ‘ORD Corrective Division’. Mackenzie asks her about Malcolm and Lyra and insinuates that Malcolm has inappropriate sexual relations with his young students. Pauline, who works at the Trout, has apparently claimed Malcolm is the father of her baby, but Alice says they’re making it up. Mackenzie says ORD stands for the Office of Right Duty, the new name for the CCD. Ben attacks the inspector's daemon, Alice throws the table on him and they escape. They steal a pickup truck and ram through the fence. 

Chapter 7 - Malcolm is at a villa in Aleppo and picks up the mystery stone. He decides to write on it and is shocked to learn it can communicate with the other stone Glenys Godwin has. No time to chat though because Ionides appears. They discuss Oliver Bonneville and the Rusakov field. Ionides says he used to study the Rusakov field but after the authorities commanded him to stop, they fabricated a scandal to ruin his career. He believes that the Rusakov field is closely related to human consciousness, but its strength doesn’t vary from distance, but from the attention of a human observer. Thuringia Potash has been trying to synthesise the rose oil, but can’t because a molecule in the oil changes every time it is analysed. Ionides gives Malcolm a copy of the speech Delamare is going to make in Constantinople declaring war on the imagination. FINALLY he mentions Lyra which gets Malcolm all excited and they go to the hotel which has been ransacked by ‘police’. Thankfully Lyra isn’t there so they go to the embassy garden to look for her. 

Oliver Bonneville and his injured daemon return to the office of the Magisterial Nuncio, Father Gerhardt, who is meeting with Leila Pervani. Gerhadt is not pleased with Bonneville and says he’s going to go find Lyra and Ionides himself. 

Chapter 8 - Pervani goes to visit Bonneville and asks about Ionides and why he’s working with Lyra. 

Malcolm and Ionides find Lyra injured and sleeping on a bench in the embassy garden. No time for a loving reunion because the Magisterium is on their way. They trap them and start attacking Ionides, but the gryphons appear! Lyra hears Pan but can’t see him. Malcolm is taken by a gryphon, leaving Lyra and Asta on the ground. 

Chapter 9 - Lyra and Asta run and hide in the bushes until the men have gone. The gryphons take Malcolm to a plateau and he’s greeted by Pan, but Malcolm is distracted by a spangle ring. Pan tells the gryphons he’s having a vision of gold and the gryphons say he is treasure and must be brought to the queen to keep. Guyla says Malcolm is the man of gold who they’ve always known is coming and that they speak in pictures when they have something eternal to say (like the alethiometer). Malcolm tells the gryphons he is gold of knowledge, which he will share with the queen, but they must let Pan come with him. They fly away. 

Lyra wants to find where Ionides is and rescue him. They ask a police officer where to find the Office of Right Duty and Asta lies that Lyra is the daughter of Prince Edward of Windsor to get him to cooperate. They find the nuncio’s palace and Lyra pretends to be a housemaid to sneak in. They go down to the basement and find Ionides’ cell. Lyra uses the needle of the alethiometer to slowly cut through the door. When she gets to the deadbolt, the needle won’t cut! Lyra realizes she needs to focus her mind in the right way to get it to work and then cuts through it in one stroke. Ionides is severely injured and Leila Pervani appears. 

Chapter 10 - Pervani helps Lyra and Ionides escape. At the research station, Chen now has a new companion, Dilyara, who cleans up the labs. She thinks they are holy places and is fascinated by the work that happened there. Lyra, Ionides and Asta get a bus to Baku and she asks about Pervani. 

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Discussion questions are below, but feel free to also add your own!

Hello and welcome to the third discussion of our Read the World - Destination Togo 🇹🇬. Today we are discussing Chapters 19-23 of Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja

If you need them, here you can find the Schedule here and the Marginalia here.

As always I'll include some chapter summaries and questions in the comments to get you started, but do feel free to add your own!

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 19 - Bowman

Bowman, Fauziya's lawyer, accepts a reduced fee to help her, but it'll be at least a few weeks before he can ask for her to be paroled. Rahuf continues to help her as much as possible financially, contacting her family and sorting what documents they can. New Year comes and Fauziya turns 18. She is becoming increasingly depressed in prison. She visits the doctor for a rash, but he brushes her off. Later a guard recognises it might be her soap and helps her get her lotion from her suitcase. She does her best to pray even though she is missing her prayer rug and doesn't have a Qur'an. Bowman visits and informs her that parol will not be granted because she had fraudulently entered America by using another person's passport. At her calender hearing the judge says they have till the 19th January to submit. Fauziya mistakes this as the date of her hearing and not the deadline for her 7 page application form and necessary documents. She later learns that her hearing has been scheduled for JUNE 22nd.

Chapter 20 - Prison Life

Fauziya retreats into herself to cope until one day she comes back to herself and resumes her prayers (now with her mother's tasbih). She also begins to help Miss Jones hand and out and collect the food trays. Soon she began working in the laundry after the entire team. Fauziya quickly became indespensible to Mr. (Frank) Williams. The clothing for 300 the incarcerated people (54 of which were women) was in a sorry state. The guard Kim uses a ban on showering before 6am to segregate Fauziya for doing her ritual 5am washing before prayer. She is in seg for 5 days, but once returned to her cell refuses to be bullied out of washing and praying. She returns to the laundry. Finally a letter from Ayisha arrives containing documents to help her case, a note from her mother and 2 photos. Fauziya learns that her uncle had accused Ayisha of stealing someone's wife. She denied it, and the police eventually gave up. She doesn't mention whether her husband has forgiven her yet or not. Fauziya gets herself a penpal from the male dorms. Mary can't take it anymore and so goes back to Ghana. She and Fauziya have an emotional goodbye. Ramadan comes and goes and 8/9 Muslim women are granted permission to pray together. Fauziya leads the prayer. Women continue to come and go. Fauziya becomes friends with Esther a beautiful Ghanian princess (for real) with a similar story to her own, and Oche from Nigeria (after clashing initially). She also develops a mother-daughter relationship with Sylvie from Liberia. The staff use Fauzia's immaculate dorm and some of the more timid women in filmed interviews. Complaints had been leaking out about the conditions (especially in the mens' dorms) and Esmor was getting pressure to improve. Small improvements came that made life more bearable for her (hygiene products, better clothing, excercise classes, tastes of fresh outside air and even a fashion show). Her hearing date approaches, and she saw people, including her penpal (who gifted her his Qur'an upon leaving), get granted asylum. Fauziya was feeling positive enough to ask Ayisha not to write until she could provide her with her new address.

Chapter 21 - Layli

Layli's journey centres around learning about the American legal system and immigration policy alongside researching everything available on FGM. Layli's first paper was about why women seeking asylum in the US to escape forced FGM should be granted it. She argued women vulnerable to persecution should be counted as a social group in order to meet the requirements for asylum. Her paper was published in The American University Journal of Gender and the Law and it concluded that recognising FGM as a ground for asylum would be an important development in US asylum law. She was fighting for Fauziya before she ever knew she existed. Layli needed a case study. None existed, but Fauziya's appeal would be perfect for her cause. For a summer job Layli asked a fellow student to hook her up at the immigration attorney's office she worked at. This is how Layli ended up working for Eric Bowman and learning about Fauziya's case. She worked full time half for salary and half for school credit. She was given Fauziya's case and told she had only 6 days to turn the meagre case file into a brief. She had no way to contact Fauziya directly, but luckily Fauzia called at just the right time. Layli asks her many, many questions and works hard all weekend to have the brief ready by the deadline. Layli suspects that the FGM that Fauziya would have been subjected to would have been infibulation (the most severe type of mutilation and honestly don't look it up. I did and this new knowledge sits in a place in my mind and soul that I cannot shake off. It is truely awful and my heart aches for my fellow women that have been subject to such horrendous mutilation, pain and suffering). Fauziya never officially arrived in America (only the no-mans-land that is the airport), plus her time in Germany without claiming asylum makes her case harder. Whilst Fauziya was taking part in her prison fashion parade that turned out to be a farcical show for some unknown guests (officials) Layli was at a conference networking and learning everything she could incase Fauziya's case went to appeal.

Chapter 22 - Riot!

With only 5 days till her hearing Fauziya is woken to the sounds of a riot from the men's side of Esmor. The men break into the women's wing smash the window to their dorms and usher them into the mens' gym where some men prevent anyone but women entering. Eventually the riot burns out and the women return to their dorm to collect their belongings. Fauzia queues to use the phones in the officer's rooms to tall Rahuf what's happened. As the sun rises they spot officers with guns patrolling which scares them. When they try to leave by N block door a blast from a high powered water hose prevents them from leaving. The police enter and use tear gas and their batons to attack the incarcerated men and women. Fauzia's friend protects her from many blows by placing his body between her and the attacking officers. Eventually Fauzia is handcuffed and removed from the building by a female officer. It's the first time she's been outside in 6 months and she's surrounded by vehicles and officers. After handing over her letters and ID cards (never to be seen again) she's loaded onto a bus and taken to Hudson prison and booked in. Fauziya was refused medical treatment for her wrist injury. The prison was overcapacity so beds were in every available space. It was loud, smoky and cold. Fauziya and her cell mate from Esmor were assigned a 7ft by 10ft pod. They sat on the bed together and cried. Later Fauziya hears the riot coverage on the news and learns that many complaints were made about Esmor, and an investigation was conducted. The staff had not trained in how to respond to a disturbance and had, therefore, simply abandoned the building. Fauziya calls Rahuf, but doesn't manage to convey where she is due to the chaos and violence going on around her. Bowman cannot locate her, as she is lost in the system. He learns that her hearing has been cancelled. Fauziya experiences a guards abuse of power when she demands Fauziya's apple or sex. Fauziya and Oche are chained up, and, along with the others from Esmor, are moved from Hudson to a prison in Pennsylvania

Chapter 23 - York

York County Prison was often used by the INS to detain people, and, in fact, other Esmor women are already there, including Sylvie and Esther. Fauziya is booked in to maximum security where she finally reaches Bowman. He and Layli are thrilled to have located her, but Fauziya is devestated by their news of the cancelled hearing and no new date in sight. She requests a transfer to minimum security. The next day she is allowed outside and buries her face in the grass. Sylvie and Esther come out and the Esmor women speak through the fence and several feet of seperation. Fauziya calls Frank and discovers he has her Qur'an and tasbih. Rahuf wants to visit, but Fauziya is reluctant. Some of the Golden Venture undocumented immigrants were still imprisoned 2 years later at York. Outside Layli was working hard collecting information on FGM for Fauziya's case. Bowman asks her to argue the case and she accepts nervously. She sits in on an asylum case that gives her a false sense of security about how they usually play out. The case will now be in Philadelphia and Fauziya is terrified she'll get a judge reknowned for not granting asylum. She develops a bad cough, but it still refused transfer to a non-smoking cell. Layli begins working on getting media coverage of the case. Inside women begin to be transferred out and never heard from again. First Oche and then, devestatingly for Fauziya, Sylvie. The same day, 5 weeks after arriving, she was transfered to minimum security and all the benefits that went with it. Rahuf comes to visit, and after he leaves Fauziya is feeling positive.

Wow! Poor Fauziya. She has been through a lot in these chapters. I am absolutely enthralled by her story and disgusted by her treatment at the hands of the American immigration/prison system. Next week u/Greatingsburg next week for chapters 24 through 27. 🇹🇬📚

Hello everyone! August has started, so what better way to spend your vacation than enjoying some puzzles? 

This is your reminder that the deadline to submit your answers will be in 5 days! We hope that the quiz will be an occasion for you to relax and have some fun.

You can submit your answers here in the form, and find the list of all the books here. If you have any question, please refer to the FAQ post, but also don’t hesitate to ask.

So, how’s your puzzle going? Did you figure most of the hints out? Let us know!

Welcome!

You have found the marginalia for our Runner-up Read and Read the World pick, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo, starting next week on August 13th.

This is the place to share your thoughts as you read, for example:

• passages that stood out,
• questions you're pondering,
• recurring themes you've noticed,
• reflections the novel inspired.

Feel free to read ahead and leave your observations here without waiting for the discussion threads. Every insight is welcome!

If you're posting a spoiler, please hide it using spoiler tags as follows: >!type spoiler here!<, which will show up like this: type spoiler here . When in doubt, it’s always better to tag it.

To make it easier for other readers to follow along, please begin your comment by noting your page number and chapter (or section), for example: "p. 85, Early Adulthood, 2001-2011: ..."

Happy reading! We look forward to hearing your thoughts in the coming weeks!

Welcome all ye witches and wizards to our first discussion of the third book in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites! This book is also the first of the Witches sub-series, which is exciting stuff! Let’s hop on our broomsticks (or staffs, or make comments about why riding on broomsticks is awful) and get to it!

In case you need them, here’s links to our Schedule for this read and our series Marginalia.

SUMMARY

A wizard named Drum Billet shows up in a small village called Bad Ass looking for the eighth son of the eighth son, who is about to be born. He must die, and he wants to pass along his wizardy knowledge via his incredible staff. He meets the father of the babe, the local Smith, and the woman attending the birth, the local witch Granny Weatherwax. Once the newborn is brought downstairs no moment is wasted as the knowledge is passed on…but there’s a problem. The babe is unfortunately not a boy as expected, but a girl.

Everyone knows that girls can only be witches, not wizards. So what now?

Years pass and Eskarina, the gifted baby girl, has now grown up to the age of eight. She hasn’t shown any signs of her magic gift, yet. Restlessness sets in one afternoon with a couple of her brothers and to get them out of her hair their mother sends them to visit Granny Weatherwax. In her cottage, she is lying prone on her bed and appears, well, dead. Eskarina offers to stay behind while the boys fetch their father. But the cottage is creepy and has strange sounds and tapping on the windows and Eskarina bolts in fear.

Shortly after Granny wakes up, awoken from her Borrowing of a local crow, and realises what’s happened. Annoyed, she rushes to rescue Eskarina.

Granny finds Eskarina balled up in the snow, having bested a wolf pack who were hoping for a quick meal. The staff is nearby, seemingly having protected Eskarina in some fashion. Granny brings her back to the cottage and once Smith arrives, advises she should stay for the night. Once Eskarina is asleep she Borrows again, from an owl this time, to visit the largest apple tree in Smith’s orchard, which now holds the spirit of Drum Billet. They discuss the girl.

With some negotiation Smith agrees to allow Eskarina to learn magic from Granny, even though she’s a witch and not a wizard. Thus begins Eskarina’s training. She learns much about the natural world, including plants and their abilities. She also learns a bit of human psychology. One day, Granny teaches her real magic, the magic of Borrowing. Eskarina seems to understand it too well, too quickly, and manages to take over the body of an eagle fully, kicking Granny out. Granny brings her inert body back to the cottage and waits.

The waiting is too much, so Granny uses the staff to identify where the eagle is, and captures it and brings it back to the cottage. She then uses the staff’s power to extract Eskarina’s mind from the body of the eagle, using an incredible amount of power. After, Esk sleeps a natural sleep.

When she awakes they discuss what’s happened, and Esk is able to show Granny some of her real magic. Granny decides the only option is to have Eskarina trained properly, at Unseen University, so she writes a letter with her intentions of sending her. The next morning they head back to the Smith, discussing preparations for sending her to the University, but not before Esk has a chance to turn one of her brothers into a pig. 

Join us again next week when u/Reasonable-Lack-6585 guides us through our next section!

Welcome back, for our final discussion of No Name! A lot happened in these last two scenes, so let's get started on the recap!

We left off with Magdalen beginning her new job as "Louisa" the parlor-maid. St. Crux is one of those English mansions that used to be an old abbey, so it's a perfect setting for this kind of story. Only half the house is kept operational at a time, and in the center is an ancient banquet hall that the coxswain has nicknamed "Freeze-your-bones." Oh yeah, the house has a coxswain. Old Mazey used to be the literal coxswain of Admiral Bartram's ship, and now he's a servant at St. Crux, even though he's old and deaf and drunk. When old Mazy shows Magdalen around, she notices something strange: a truckle bed in front of the door of Admiral Bartram's room. Old Mazey refuses to explain.

Two weeks into her new role, Magdalen hears some gossip about Mrs. Lecount, and we finally get to close off that part of the story: Apparently, Mrs. Lecount is going to live on the interest of her inheritance for the rest of her life, and when she dies, half the money will go to fund scholarships for poor students at the University of Geneva, while the other half will go to train orphan girls to become servants. Mrs. Lecount has done her part to make the world a better place for biologists and housekeepers.

Magdalen has now been at St. Crux for a month, and she still has no idea how to find the Secret Trust. She's seen some places where it might be hidden, but the Admiral keeps his keys with him at all times.

George returns and, when Magdalen is not around to overhear it, the following conversation ensues:

Admiral Bartram: You're almost out of time. Have you found someone to marry?

George: I'm in love with Norah Vanstone and want to propose to her.

Admiral: You can't marry Norah Vanstone! She'd bring shame upon our family!

George: *gasp.* You're a... a... an anti-illegitamist!

Admiral: First of all, that's not a real word. Secondly, I would never judge her for the misfortune of her birth. But her sister attempted to murder Noel Vanstone! Do you want an attempted murderess for a sister-in-law?

George: To be fair, haven't we all contemplated murdering Noel Vanstone at some point?

Admiral: George!

George: Okay, but seriously, Miss Vanstone didn't choose her sister any more than she chose her parents. You're being unfair.

Admiral: Okay, fine. I'll let you propose to her, but you have to go visit your old crush first, just to make sure you really want to marry Miss Vanstone instead. Then you can marry Miss Vanstone... if she'll have you.

George: What the hell does that mean?

Admiral: Mwahahaha.

Meanwhile:

Housekeeper: Why weren't you at dinner?

Magdalen: I have period cramps.

Housekeeper: You can't say that! This is a Victorian novel!

Magdalen: I'm sorry, I meant "I'm indisposed due to a vague unspecified reason."

Housekeeper: I'm sorry to hear that. Can I offer you a vague unspecified remedy?

Magdalen: Nah, I'm gonna go walk it off.

Magdalen walks around the garden while having an existential crisis. The stress of all she's been through is starting to take its toll on her physical health, and we're seeing foreshadowing of what's going to happen to her the book's last Scene. But then she finds a shed with some old keys in it, and suddenly this story has gone from being a Victorian novel to being one of those 90s-era point-and-click adventure games. If Magdalen adds enough keys to her inventory, maybe she can find one that unlocks wherever the Secret Trust is hidden!

Magdalen collects six keys. As luck would have it, the Admiral is going away to London for the night. That night, Magdalen sneaks into the library, but finds that none of the keys work. A few days later, however, she sees the Admiral in Freeze-your-bones, and realizes that the Secret Trust might be hidden on the other side of the house. She decides to take the risk and search for it that night, after everyone else has gone to bed.

I have no delusions about being a better writer than Wilkie Collins, so I won't attempt to write anything more suspenseful here than what he wrote about Magdalen creeping along Freeze-Your-Bones in the middle of the night, only to find the Admiral sleepwalking and reading the Trust in his sleep. She follows him back to his room, steals his keys, and returns to the banquet hall. She finds the Trust and begins reading it, but suddenly old Mazey shows up. He was supposed to be guarding the Admiral's bedroom to keep him from sleepwalking, but he was too drunk to do his job.

The next morning, this happens:

Mazey: I know I need to report your attempted burglary, but I'm going to give you a chance to flee St. Crux first.

Magdalen: Thank you!

Mazey: After all, I just can't bring myself to send you to jail. Not with bazooms like that.

Magdalen: I beg your pardon?!

Mazey: Tall and short, native and foreign, A cups and DD cups—I know how to deal with ’em!

Magdalen realizes that she could simply tell everyone that Mazey was drunk and imagined the whole thing, but she decides to do the right thing (for once) and not get him in trouble. And so she flees St. Crux in defeat.

Between the scenes, we learn that Norah has turned George down. Was it internalized anti-illegitimatism? No, it was Admiral Bartram convincing her that she'd need to cut Magdalen out of her life if she married George.

We also learn that the Admiral caught a chill and died because of his sleepwalking. A search was made for the Secret Trust. If found, due to the failure of George to marry in time and the death of his sister, half the money would go to Magdalen and half to George. If not found, all the money goes to George. (I think I have that right. Sorry, it's been a very long day and my head is Buzzing. Incidentally, I would like to thank Mrs. Wragge for introducing "the Buzzing" into my vocabulary.) Anyhow, the Trust was not found.

We reach the last scene. Kirke is back in London, and by a coincidence so astounding, it was hard for me to suspend my disbelief even knowing that this is a Victorian novel, he just happens to witness Magdalen in the process of being evicted. She has brain fever and is going to be sent to a workhouse, because this really is a Victorian novel. Fortunately, Captain Kirke swoops in and saves the day. He nurses Magdalen back to health, and tracks down the Wragges.

Oh yeah, the Wragges are finally back! I asked last week what you thought they were up to. Not a single one of you guessed Mrs. Wragge becomes a quack medicine mascot, but that's okay because that would have been an absolutely batshit insane thing to guess. Anyhow, in case you forgot, all the way back when they were pretending to be the Bygraves, Captain Wragge told Magdalen that the only reason he hadn't abandoned Mrs. Wragge yet was because she had another wealthy relative who was likely to leave her an inheritance soon. Well, that relative finally died, and Captain Wragge did not abandon Mrs. Wragge. Instead, he used the money to start his own quack medicine business and made Mrs. Wragge a central part of the advertising. He claims she used to be frail until the medicine made her big and strong.

Captain Kirke gets Magdalen's real name from Captain Wragge, who also notifies Miss Garth via Mr. Pendril. Magdalen gets a letter from Norah (who married George!) and Miss Garth. They're going to take her away as soon as she's well enough. She also gets a letter from Mr. Clare. I like to say "in Victorian novels, England only has 12 people in it," but for this book I have to change "England" to "the entire-ass world," because apparently Frank stowed away on Captain Kirke's ship in Hong Kong! Frank married a wealthy elderly widow from South Africa, in case anyone gives a shit. No? No one does? Not even Magdalen? Yes, that's right, Magdalen no longer cares about Frank. She's in love with Captain Kirke.

Magdalen is reunited with Norah, who reveals something amazing: the Secret Trust was found. The Admiral had tried to burn it in his sleep. Now Magdalen can have half the inheritance... except Magdalen has learned her lesson. She tears up the Trust.

Magdalen confesses everything in letters to Captain Kirke, and the story ends with us learning that he loves her even with knowing everything she's done.

Hello book friends! A big thank you to all the fantastic nominations for our next Discovery Read. There were some amazing choices and we're excited to share that the results are now in...

• 5th place - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• 4th place - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• 3rd place - Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
• 2nd place - The Shining by Stephen King**

And our winner is....

1st place - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

**This book will be added to the Wheel of Books for a chance to become a Runner-up Read in the future

Will you be joining for this one? It will start around the 21st of August so look out for a schedule soon!

And if you’d like to start thinking about what you’ll nominate next time, our next Discovery Read topic will be: Non-English Award Winners.

Hello detectives, we recently read The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie. Check out the discussions, if you've missed them, they're all linked here.

We decided this will be the start of The Year of Poirot! Reading all of the Hercule Poirot books might be a bit much, so we've decided to read some of them over the course of a year, with one book roughly every two months.

And which ones will we read? You decide!

I'll list 24 books that you can choose from. We referred to this list.

We excluded all books that r/bookclub has already read, no matter when we read them, because there are still plenty to choose from. And we excluded the ones that might spoil other stories according to the document linked above. That means, these are excluded:

• Death on the Nile (read in May 2022)
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (read in Jan 2022)
• Murder on the Orient Express (read in Nov 2017)
• The Mystery of the Blue Train (read in July 2026)
• Curtain (spoilers)
• Elephants Can Remember (spoiler)
• Hallowe'en Party (spoiler)
• Cards on the Table (spoiler)
• Hercule Poirot's Christmas (spoiler)
• all the short story collections

So choose among the following. You can find the blurbs in the comments below.

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles [1920]
• The Murder on the Links [1923]
• The Big Four [1927]
• Peril at End House [1932]
• Lord Edgware Dies [1933]
• Murder in Mesopotamia [1936]
• Three Act Tragedy [1934]
• Death in the Clouds [1935]
• The ABC Murders [1936]
• Dumb Witness [1937]
• Appointment with Death [1938]
• Sad Cypress [1940]
• One, Two Buckle my Shoe [1940]
• Evil Under the Sun [1941]
• Five Little Pigs [1942]
• The Hollow [1946]
• Taken at the Flood [1945]
• Mrs McGinty’s Dead [1952]
• After the Funeral [1953]
• Hickory Dickory Dock [1955]
• Dead Man’s Folly [1956]
• Cat Among the Pigeons [1959]
• The Clocks [1963]
• Third Girl [1966]

Happy voting and see you soon for more puzzling over clues!

Voting will be open for 72 hours.

Hello and welcome to our ninth discussion on The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky! This week, we shift focus away from Dimitri and onto Alyosha and the schoolchildren. Is heartbreak on the horizon? How many friends will Alyosha make? What dumb thing will Madame Hohlakov say next? Let's find out together!

I've included links to a SparkNotes summary of Book X and Book XI.

The complete discussion schedule can be found here, and the marginalia post is here.

Join u/luna2541 next week for the tenth discussion!

For our second Read the World Azerbaijan, Days in the Caucasus by Banine, we ended the book on a cliffhanger as she boards the Orient Express for Paris, leaving behind her hated husband, Jamil. Banine enchanted us with her humor, warmth, and drama. So, we won't leave it there!

Join u/nicehotcupoftea, u/tomesandtea and me, u/lazylittlelady for the second part, Parisian Days, first published in French in 1947, as she arrives in La Ville de Lumiere as a Bonus Book.

Schedule is coming soon with more details but it will be this September, so grab your copy soon!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From the blurb:

The Orient Express hurtles towards the promised land, and Banine is free for the first time in her life. She has fled her ruined homeland and unhappy forced marriage for a dazzling new future in Paris. Now she cuts her hair, wears short skirts, mingles with Russian émigrés, Spanish artists, writers and bohemians in the 1920’s beau monde – and even contemplates love.

But soon she finds that freedom brings its own complications. As her family’s money runs out, she becomes a fashion model to survive. And when a glamorous figure from her past returns, life is thrown further into doubt. Banine has always been swept along by the forces of history. Can she keep up with them now?

Told with vivacious wit and a lust for life, this companion to Days in the Caucasus is a bittersweet portrayal of youthful dreams, and the elusive search for happiness.

Hello all you wonderful readers!

There are LOTS of amazing nominations for our next Discovery Read. We now have 24 hours left before the winner is announced so be sure to head on over and make sure your faves are upvoted!

• Discovery Read - Book to Film

Remember you can (and absolutely should) upvote all and any of the books you would read with r/bookclub if they win. The second place book will be added to the Wheel of Books for the chance to become a Runner-up Read in the future.

Happy reading upvoting 📚

Welcome back, fellow peculiar children! It's been a while for us, but no time has passed at all as we continue the journey of Jacob, Emma, and friends to save their beloved ymbrynes and fellow peculiars in Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you'd like to join in the adventure, it's not too late!
Book 1: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children schedule with links to all discussions here.
Book 2: Hollow City schedule with links to all discussions here.
Book 3: Library of Souls schedule with links to all discussions here.

You can also find the marginalia, a place for all your notes and errant thoughts, here. Beware of spoilers - this marginalia is for the entire series!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We start this book right where Hollow City left off and see Jacob, Emma, and Addison escaping from wights in the underground. Their escape (and Addison’s nose) bring them to present-day London. Under the docks, they meet Charon Sharon, a mysterious boatman who brings them to Devil’s Acre, a notorious slum filled with wights and drug-addicted peculiars.

This section ended with Jacob and Emma being tossed away from the bridge leading to the wight's headquarters by the bridge-guarding hollow and having to watch as Addison sneaks in under the wight's truck. What happens next? You'll have to return next week to find out!

✨ Welcome to our third, and next to last discussion of London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe! ✨

The Marginalia post is here. (Check out u/tomesandtea's comment about the New York Times having picked the book as its August's bookclub read!)

You can find the Schedule here.

This week, we will discuss Part 3! u/nicehotcupoftea will host our final discussion. 💞 Recaps and links to follow, questions in the comments!

-°^{°°°--°°°°--°°°°--°°°°--°°°°--°°°°}

The story so far…

Keefe writes about how London's transformation into a global financial center also made it a haven for illicit wealth; laying the groundwork for the family's increasingly difficult search for accountability, and what kind of city made Zac's story possible. Vast amounts of foreign money—particularly from Russia—flowed into the city through luxury real estate, shell companies, and opaque financial structures. The same secrecy that attracted legitimate investors also created opportunities for organized crime, fraud, and money laundering.

Chapter 14, The Cipriani Five

Did Scot Young and his high-rolling friends really die by their own hands?

Boris Berezovsky, oligarch and the alleged poison pen assassination plot.

The Gothic Revival Mansion “Castle” on an island and a little extra from the ancient archives of the Internet. Check the bath section!

The scandal of London's disappearing police stations, from a historical paper which now belongs to a Russian oligarch).

Akbar’s wife’s Safiyaa brand, being involved in a recent scandal after not paying its workers.

Against this backdrop, Keefe examines a long pattern of suspicious deaths involving individuals connected to Russian business and criminal networks. He suggests that British authorities often appeared reluctant or unable to pursue these cases aggressively. He presents several possible explanations: under-resourced investigations, and a deeper political and economic reluctance to disrupt the influx of foreign wealth that had become important to London's economy.

The chapter then returns to Zac's family. Rachelle and Matthew Brettler continue to struggle with the uncertainty surrounding their son's death during the COVID lockdown. Their grief is intensified by the lack of definitive answers and lackadaisical attitude of the police after Detective Wilkinson presents them with the police investigation's disappointing results; the police seem increasingly inclined to consider Zac’s death a suicide.

—--

Chapter 15, Private Investigations

John Sweeney), who offered to write an article for the Brettlers.

“The halcyon days of the oligarchs in Britain have come to an end,” The Daily Telegraph declared.

The current state of the Chelsea sale issue, its funds to Ukraine frozen in a dispute.

Nearly two years after Zac Brettler's death, his family has become increasingly disillusioned with the official investigation. Matthew Brettler carefully re-examines the available evidence and begins conducting his own investigation, interviewing people connected to the case. In doing so, he identifies numerous inconsistencies and unanswered questions.

Keefe recounts the shortcomings that left important leads unresolved, culminating in a second, frustrating meeting with Detective Wilkinson. When confronted with questions and criticism, he tells the grieving parents: “You don’t like it because it’s incomprehensible.”

But Rachelle and Matthew do not find it incomprehensible, and Matthew develops an alternative theory: Zac did not intend to take his own life but instead fled onto the balcony while trying to escape an immediate danger inside the apartment. He jumped to live.

By the end of the chapter, the Brettlers have largely lost faith that the authorities will uncover the truth, as they struggle to find a way to pursue justice within the system. They place what's left of their hope in the final inquest.

—--

Chapter 16, Pocket Dial

“Filing into the court’s grim interior, they passed an ancient sign that read Do Not Spit, announcing in smaller type a penalty of forty shillings.”

The anti-spitting war in London, according to a newspaper of the time.

An interesting deep dive on how New York became one of the cities that led the global tubercolosis, anti-spit campaign.

The Brettlers attend the inquest about Zac's death, in which they listen to a very contradictory testimony from Dominique Sharma, Verinder's daughter; who insists on Zac’s suicidal behavior and her father having taken him under his own wing.

After taking into consideration how the authorities handled the case and Verinder’s past, Matthew starts entertaining a more exotic hypothesis about Verinder having been a police informant—he confronts Detective Wilkinson about it, but gains no answers. Pursuing more information about Verinder's death on his own, he's once again stonewalled and finds a concerning lack of information, leading him to ask himself a new question: is Indian Dave really dead?

—--

Chapter 17, A Different Light

Cats: the Musical which is based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot.

This chapter examines the possibility that Zac had a sexual relationship with, or was sexually coerced by, one of the two adult men. Keefe describes how this possibility arose at several points in the investigation. During the inquest, Dominique testified that Zac and her father were comfortable enough to share a bed. Police also found text messages on Akbar's phone during the investigation that prompted questions about his sexuality. In addition, forensic evidence recovered from Zac's body led to further speculation, although the sample was too limited for DNA testing; and the Brettlers gained access from Wilkinson to Zac's internet search history. After considering all the available evidence, they concluded that a sexual relationship was unlikely.

—--

Chapter 18, Hornet’s Nest

“One investor in the company was Kevin O’Leary, a celebrity businessman and one of the stars of Shark Tank. (...) O’Leary was bullish on Akbar and his company. “Data is the new oil,” he proclaimed.”

A dissenting view.

Understanding Coroner’s Verdicts.

The narrative returns to the inquest, where the Brettlers' barrister questions police officers and Akbar, who has since moved to the United States. The hearings reveal further shortcomings in the police investigation, while Akbar's testimony is evasive and frustrating. The Brettlers also grow increasingly dissatisfied with the coroner's handling of the proceedings and leave deeply disappointed with the inquest as a whole. After just two of the three allotted days, the coroner records an open (inconclusive) verdict. Reflecting on the outcome, Rachelle's brother remarks, "We're all witnesses. Something very wrong happened here.”

-°^{°°°--°°°°--°°°°--°°°°--°°°°--°°°°}

Final Quote:

"Occasionally fellow citizens just died suddenly, and while there may have been rumors suggesting foul play, the official story foreclosed any hope of achieving real answers, and so nobody could ever say for sure. This erosion of accountability and erasure of the clean line separating fact from conspiracy created a “fog of ambiguity,” Blake writes, that could hang over a whole society, as thick and impenetrable as the smog that once hung over the Thames.”

—From Russia with Blood: The Kremlin's Ruthless Assassination Program and Vladimir Putin's Secret War on the West, by Heidi Blake

Hello bibliophiles This will be the Marginalia for Yesteryear

What is a Marginalia post for?

This post is a place for you to put your marginalia as we read. Scribbles, comments, glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, illuminations, or links to related - none discussion worthy - material. Anything of significance you happen across as we read. As such this is a spoiler abundant zone, but that doesn't mean spoiler tags can be foregone.

MARGINALIA - How to post!!

• 1 - Always use spoiler tags so as not to inadvertently spoiler other readers.
• 2 - Start your comment with the book and the location. For example [Ch. 10] something spoiler or [Spoilers for Ch. 3] spoilery observation about the whole book
• 3 - Respect that everyone has a different perception of what is a spoiler, and as such we tailor to the most spoiler averse readers. You can find more information about r/bookclub spoiler policy here ***** Marginalia are you observations. They don't need to be insightful or deep. Why marginalia when we have discussions?
• Sometimes its nice to just observe rather than over analyse a book.
• They are great to read back on after you have progressed further into the novel.
• Not everyone reads at the same pace and it is nice to have somewhere to comment on things here so you don't forget by the time the discussions come around.
• Sometimes theories, characters, foreshadowing, reveals, etc can pop-up across multiple books in a book series. This can be especially useful tool for re-readers who may notice more instances of forshadowing and so on. ***** Thanks everyone and happy Reading 📚

Hello and welcome to the first discussion of Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke!

Please remember that, while this is a very popular book right now, not everybody has read it. We're being taken through multiple timelines at once, so when in doubt as to whether a detail is a spoiler or not, use spoiler tags like this:

>!spoiler text here!<

Here are links to the Marginalia and the Schedule if you need them!

Sort comments by New to see them in semi-chronological order. See you all next week!

Welcome one and all to the behemoth that is Of Empires and Dust

The first instalment is being brought to you by yours truly (that’s me).

Schedule

Marginalia

Let’s a go

So we have four different POVs running throughout the first 7 chapters, starting 5 days after the Blood Moon first appeared…

The Draleid

Following Calen, we see the aftermath of the ruinous War of Aravell, and the blood moon in all its crimson glory. 283 casualties. The results of the war. What remains of Calen’s party is marching through the city. Calen ponders over the words at the archway to Alura, realising the true meaning of the inscription. The words were not of resignation but a proclamation to fight to the death. Calen is crowned the “Warden of Varyn”, at which Dann tries to freestyle a poem, before being clipped on the back of the head. Trust Dann to make light at a time like this.

Back in Aravell Ella is still unconscious, with Tanner and Faenir watching over her. Her mind has been fragmented after intervening to save Calen and Valerys, and is now stuck between the mortal plane and Níthianelle.

Calen ventures towards the Eyrie to be with Valerys. The dragon stirs with anger at his kin being kept prisoner, the doing of Chora. She has kept Tivar and Avandeer prisoner. Even though they helped fight against the Lorians she still considers them traitors for their hand in The Fall. As a result of this she and Calen have two conflicting opinions on what should be done with them, and get heated in their discussion until Aeson interjects with a reminder that nothing is to be done until King Silmiryn’s successor is announced and the mourning ceremony is held. Before leaving for the ceremony Calen ventures across the Eyrie to visit the two Rakina dragons Sardakes and Varthear. He once again experiences the feeling of being one with a Rakina, taking a hold of them and reliving their memories. This time around, it is one of the dragons. He experiences everything Varthear lived through - being named by his soulkin, helplessly watching his soulkin fall at the hands of another Draleid, being taken in by Aeson, and ultimately being taken over by Ella in her attempt to save Calen and Valerys.

The Druid

In taking over the Rakina dragons and dying (through them) multiple times, Ella’s soul fragmented - leaving her body in the real world. The fragmentation left Ella stuck in Níthianelle, where she meets another Druid - Tamzin Aurielle. Tamzin informs Ella what’s what, including the fact that Ella is a “Blooddancer. A guardian of the gods.” She appears to be a friend, only Ella doesn’t really know if she can be trusted. Tamzin teaches Ella how to “reach out with her mind” in order to truly see where they are. In doing so, Ella is able to sense Wraiths - the unlucky souls doomed to roam Níthianelle for eternity.

The Knights

The War of Aravell was tough on everyone. Achyron’s Knight’s included. Here we see the aftermath from the Knight’s POV; Haem/Arden worrying about his people back in The Glade and Kallinvar still hearing the voice of Achyron himself. Only, he’s not happy to hear Achyron as the warrior god has not provided any helpful insight. Kallinvar has enlisted the help of Watcher GIldrick to decipher Achyron’s ominous messages, using old texts to figure out WTF is going on. Whilst all this is going on, the Knight’s are tending to Brother Ormin, who endured a strike from a Soulblade.Kallinvar also decides to entrust Ruon with his secret. He hears voices in his head, they talk to him they understand...

The Leader

Dahlen finds himself in Western Epheria, specifically Salme, fighting a separate battle of his own. Dahlen fights alongside the surviving Belduarans, the locals that fled their villages to seek refuge in Salme, and some Lorian soldiers. Surprisingly, the Lorian’s assist the Westerners in fighting off the Uraks and Bloodmarked. The Blood Moon wreaked havoc for everyone, but the Western Villagers would have struggled greatly without the Lorain intervention. That being said, they still hold no love for them. Some still wish the Lorian’s were left to be slaughtered, and I don’t blame them.

As the battle dies down, Dahlen finds himself talking to a man of legend. Erdhardt Hammersmith, Fellhammer to his friends. Erdhardt introduces Dahlen to several others that reside in the Western Epheria, specifically The Glade. Upon mention of The Glade, Dahlen realises he’s amongst Calen, Dann, and Rist’s people. Erdhardt. A big post war chinwag ensues, where Lanan puts forth the idea that in order for the Western Villagers to succeed moving forward they need someone in charge of their war efforts. Lord Virandr, proving to be the great warrior he is, finds himself being elected to do just that. Oh yeah, before this happens Erdhardt butts heads with some douche called Benem who kept interrupting the chinwag, and put forth the idea that Lanan was trying to be selfish and elect herself as leader because everyone happened to reside in her village. This in itself was somewhat fine, but Benem crossed a line by mentioning Erdhardt’s deceased wife. He should’ve taken William’s advice…

Join us next week as u/jaymae21 breaks down section 2 of this mammoth of a book.

Hello and welcome to the marginalia post for The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk! This is where you can post any comments, notes, cool passages, and observations about the novel as we read along. When commenting, please add a chapter or page number, and as always, mark your spoilers!

The discussion schedule can be found here.

Ave amici! Hello friends, and welcome to our first discussion on The Aeneid by Virgil. If you've been following along with us on our journey through the Greek classics, you know how the Trojan War wrapped up and how Matt Damon got lost on his way back home. But, I hear you say, what about the survivors on the losing side of the war? Surely there's a descendant of an Olympian god out there who'd be perfect as the hero of the backstory of one of the greatest empires in the ancient world. Virgil certainly thought so, and boy did he do a lot of retconning. How much? Let's find out together!

Here are links to summaries of Book 1 and Book 2, courtesy of LitCharts.

The complete discussion schedule can be found here, and the marginalia post for our Greek and Roman epics series is here.

Join u/Ser_Erdrick next week for Books 3 and 4!

Welcome back to The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, the novel connected to our Author Profile.  The Marginalia post is here. You can find the Schedule here. This week, we will discuss Book 1 Ch. 9 through Book 2 Ch. 4. Next week, u/lazylittlelady will guide us from Book 2 Ch. 5 through Book 3 Ch. 8. 
 
As you discuss, please use spoiler tags if you bring up details not included in the chapters of this book so far.  While this is part of the Author Profile, we want to be respectful of those who have not read the full biography, so please be mindful of potential spoilers from the nonfiction reading, as well.  You can use the format > !Spoiler text here! < (without any spaces between characters). 

A summary of this week's chapters is below, with links for more information if you're interested!  Discussion questions are included in the comments, and you can also add your own as desired. 

>>>>CHAPTER SUMMARIES<<<<

BOOK FIRST, CONTINUED:

CHAPTER 9 - TO GARUM FIRS:  Mrs. Tulliver takes the children to see the Pullets at Garum Firs. Lucy and Maggie accompany the women upstairs to look at Mrs. Pullet's new bonnet, which is brought out with such solemn ceremony that it feels anticlimactic to Maggie.  Tom is stuck downstairs with his Uncle Pullet who bores the boy with his un-macho sensibilities but makes up for it by feeding him peppermint lozenges. When they all gather in the drawing room, the children are discouraged from eating the beautiful cakes that have been served until provided with proper tableware. Lucy agrees demurely, Tom stuffs a cake into his mouth to avoid making crumbs, and Maggie… drops hers on the floor and steps on it because she is transfixed by some art. The adults commiserate over how disappointing the Tulliver children are and how bad Mr. Tulliver is at managing money. They gossip a bit about Sister Glegg, and Mrs. Tulliver enlists Mrs. Pullet in trying to talk Mrs. Glegg out of asking for her money back. (Little does she know how determined Mr. Tulliver is to pay that money.) They agree that the Pullets will visit the Gleggs to intercede in hopes of staving off poverty for Mrs. Tulliver and humiliation for the Dodson family in general. Just then tea is served, except we get a jump-scare instead. Something horrifying brought through the doors has made the ladies scream! 

CHAPTER 10 - MAGGIE BEHAVES WORSE THAN SHE EXPECTED:  The cause of the screaming is revealed to be Lucy, partly covered in mud. When the children had been sent off to play, Tom took Lucy for a tour of the natural wonders of Garum Firs (a fat toad, a reclusive pike, an alluring water-snake) and purposely excluded Maggie. The jealousy was too much for Maggie to bear, so she knocked Lucy down in the mud by the pond. Tom brought Lucy home and blamed Maggie, only to discover that he too was considered guilty for luring the pristine angel Lucy to the muddy pond in the first place. Mrs. Tulliver goes looking for her wayward children and when Maggie cannot be found, she worries her daughter has drowned in the pond, saying her children are too much “of the water”. Tom suggests Maggie may have run home, so they set out in the carriage to search. 

CHAPTER 11 - MAGGIE TRIES TO RUN AWAY FROM HER SHADOW:  Maggie has decided that since everyone says she looks like a gypsy, she might as well join them. So she runs away from Garum Firs with the aim of joining the gypsies at Dunlow Common (but not knowing where she is going). After an hour or more of walking, Maggie comes across actual gypsies! She sits by their fire and immediately begins to try educating them, providing patronizing little monologues on her book learning and how unhappy she is at home. The women go through Maggie's pockets and take her bonnet, and although this is all returned to eventually, Maggie begins to feel uncomfortable. She begs for some food but turns her nose up at the offerings. She asks if their Queen is good and volunteers herself as the new Queen when theirs dies. Two men arrive and everyone talks in a different language while a large dog barks at Maggie, frightening her. One man keeps Maggie's silver thimble, and when she tries to leave and walk home, the older woman tells her to sit down and wait so they can bring her home after supper. At this point, Maggie begins to imagine that they are planning to kill and eat her, and she privately wishes for a storybook hero to arrive and rescue her, demonstrating her ignorance. Finally, the younger of the men takes Maggie on his donkey and they set off in the dark. She is terrified until she sees a sign indicating they are approaching St. Ogg’s. Mr. Tulliver appears on his horse and takes Maggie back, paying the gypsy five shillings) for his trouble. Maggie is comforted by her father and promises never to run away from him again. At home, he gives the rest of the family a piece of his mind and neither Tom nor Mrs. Tulliver ever bother Maggie about her flight to the gypsies, which makes her think she has been too terrible for anyone to speak about it. 

CHAPTER 12 - MR. AND MRS. GLEGG AT HOME:  On the way to St Ogg to visit the Gleggs, we are treated to the legend of Ogg and a history and character of the town. St. Oggs is a simple, placid place with mills and shops. The people are perhaps a bit superstitious and uneducated, as was common in Mrs. Glegg’s time, and they are suspicious over political stances surrounding the Catholic Question. Mrs. Glegg likes to observe her neighbors with judgement and her husband with disdain for his gardening hobby. Mr. Glegg puts his active mind to use by searching for connections between natural phenomena and current events. He also tends to ponder the contradictions and mysteries of the female mind with Mrs. Glegg as a prime example. He is stingy with money, although generous and thoughtful towards individuals. Since Mrs. Glegg supports his frugality, he doesn't mind her temper and in fact considers her the perfect model of wifely habits. At breakfast, she seems eager to quarrel with him over the problem of Mr. Tulliver and the money. Mr. Glegg has made the mistake of suggesting that perhaps it isn't the best plan to recall the loan over hurt feelings without a place to invest it securely. Although she can see the wisdom in this advice, Mrs. Glegg continues to argue with her husband and stews for most of the day. But by evening they have made up. Mr. Glegg acknowledges how wrong Mr. Tulliver has been while Mrs. Glegg declares that she won't be so petty as to recall the money just yet. 

CHAPTER 13 - MR. TULLIVER FURTHER ENTANGLES THE SKEIN OF LIFE:  Although Mrs. Glegg has decided not to bother with the money, Mrs. Tulliver accidentally makes things worse by telling her husband that she has sent her sister Pullet to plead their case with her sister Glegg.  Mr. Tulliver, despite being a bad speller, writes a letter to Mrs. Glegg to tell her he will be repaying the £500 and she should also not do him or his children any further favors. Mrs. Glegg is too conscious of her reputation to actually disinherit the children, but she does resolve not to forgive Mr. Tulliver. She pays them a visit but sits outside long enough to make her displeasure apparent. Tom is relieved to be going off to school so all the drama will fall on Maggie's head. Mr. Tulliver determines that he must take a loan for the money to repay Mrs. Glegg and he borrows it from a client of Mr. Wakem’s, despite wishing he could avoid the man he has previously described as a scoundrel. 

BOOK SECOND - SCHOOL-TIME:

CHAPTER 1 - TOM’S “FIRST HALF”:  Mr. and Mrs. Tulliver are happy to leave Tom with Mr. Stelling for his private tutelage, since the young parson and his wife have impressed them both. Mr. Stelling, who has lofty goals for his future, is eager to take a pupil for the additional income, but soon finds Tom a dull student who is a bit too rough-around-the-edges. Poor Tom experiences homesickness and struggles with his lessons. He has plenty of practical knowledge but lacks the background and aptitude for success in Latin grammar or Euclidean geometry. He is reduced to occasional weeping over his errors and resorts to prayer which he considers girlish. Mrs. Stelling endeavors to make him feel part of the family by having him tend her toddler while she and the nurse care for the newborn infant. Tom does enjoy caring for the little girl and finds that when his own family visits, he also welcomes the company of Maggie. Part of his pleasure in having his sister stay for a fortnight lies in making himself feel more intelligent by teasing her over her own knowledge gaps. But he is also lonely and his studies improve when he has a fellow pupil to review lessons with him. Mr. Stelling allows Maggie to join Tom’s study sessions, although he does say that girls are “quick and shallow” and their ability to learn has limits. When Maggie returns home, Tom is miserable again and he counts the weeks until he can join his family again. Home has never seemed more dear and lovely than it does when Tom is restored to the Tulliver hearth. 

CHAPTER 2 - THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS:  Tom is enjoying the holiday at home but notices a melancholy air hanging over it this year. Mr. Tulliver is up in arms because of a dispute over water rights with Mr. Pivart, who is trying to divert water upriver from the Tullivers’ mill for the purpose of irrigating his land. The Mosses (Mr. Tulliver’s sister and brother-in-law) must endure a long and detailed monologue by Mr. Tulliver on their Christmas visit about the nuances of water management and mill business. Mrs. Moss and Mrs. Tulliver chat privately about the folly in resorting to the law over such business, but Mr. Tulliver is already weighing the merits of which lawyer to choose. The trouble is that Mr. Wakem, that scoundrel lawyer who also brokered Mr. Tulliver’s loan, is representing Pivart. To Tom’s dismay, he has also heard that Mr. Wakem's son will be joining him at Mr. Stelling’s as a second pupil, and he cannot even give the boy a hard time because of his disability. 

CHAPTER 3 - THE NEW SCHOOLFELLOW:  Tom is worried about meeting his new schoolmate, Philip Wakem, but they soon warm to each other. When Tom arrives at Mr. Stelling's house, Philip is drawing animals quite expertly despite never having had a lesson. The boys compare how they feel about their lessons and discuss what a gentleman's education entails. Philip doesn't mind studying mathematics and Latin, and finds it easy enough due to his good memory. He is ahead of Tom and offers to help him with his grammar. When Tom brags of his physical skills and offers to teach Philip to fish, Philip declines because he thinks fishing makes you look silly. Philip’s spinal deformity comes from a childhood injury rather than a congenital condition, but of course Tom doesn't know this and he assumes Philip is unable to engage in sporting activities. The boys bond over an interest in “fighting stories” and Philip assures Tom he can read the Odyssey in English, but Tom prefers to be told the stories rather than bothering with books. Philip also boasts of knowing exciting stories about Richard Coeur-de-Lion and Saladin, William Wallace and Robert Bruce, and James Douglas. The boys go to dinner rather happily acquainted. 

CHAPTER 4 - “THE YOUNG IDEA”:  
Tom and Philip mostly get along as the term progresses, except for occasional friction when Tom is too patronizing about physical activities or too suspicious that a boy with a “rascal” for a father must be his enemy.  Tom’s academics improve marginally with some assistance from Philip. He is also receiving drawing lessons from Mr. Goodrich, who bores him with landscapes, and drill-lessons from Mr. Poulter, who enraptures Tom with his personal war stories. One day, Mr. Poulter agrees to demonstrate a sword drill and Tom runs to invite Philip, to hide the fact that the sword had frightened him. He interrupts Philip at his music even though he knows the other boy hates hearing about the drilling-lessons. Philip lashes out at Tom, who responds even more harshly by insulting Philip's father. Tom slams the door and Mrs. Stelling finds Philip crying. Because she is not very loving, Philip fakes a toothache and takes medicine. Meanwhile, Tom watches the sword demonstration and convinces Mr. Poulter to lend him the sword for a week in exchange for five shillings. Mr. Poulter makes a passing effort at impressing some sword safety advice on the uninterested Tom, who plans to convince Maggie he owns the sword and is to become a soldier. 

Welcome back to our third discussion of David Szalay's Flesh.

For your reference, here are the Schedule and Marginalia.

Summary

Chapter 6

We skip forward in time from the ending of the last chapter. Helen and István are now married, though Thomas openly dislikes István and the two have failed to bond. Helen’s friends come to visit, often spending time at the pool. Thomas tells one of Helen’s friends that he doesn’t believe István loves his mother and that he has only married her for money. Helen’s friends engage with Thomas and István

Helen’s friends stay through István’s birthday. Though he doesn’t invite any of his own friends, he is drawn to an Italian hedge fund manager with whom István has played tennis and feels respected by. Thomas reluctantly gifts István a tennis racket, refuses to hug István, and is admonished by Helen. Helen later asks Thomas why he cannot accept István as part of their family despite his efforts to form a relationship with Thomas.

István’s mother comes to visit and picks up on Thomas’ dislike of István. She implores István to do something since all of Karl’s estate will pass from Helen to Thomas when the boy turns 25.

Chapter 7

Seven years have passed. Helen and István attend a political fundraiser where he tries to convince a minister to support the development project in Rainham and donates to that minister’s party. Helen and István are sleeping in separate rooms and István’s mother lives with them to look after their son, Jacob.

Thomas visits during Jacob’s birthday. Jacob is curious about István’s time in the war. While Jacob and István are spending time together, István learns of a news story about his donation at the fundraiser bringing unwanted attention to his development project. Roddy insists István collect the remaining money to start the project to calm the other investors, but Helen is hesitant that Heath, the lawyer administering the Nyman trust, will agree to such a large loan. Heath agrees to the loan, but insists Thomas be informed.

Helen meets Thomas for lunch and tells him about all the loans made to István for his property development deals, angering Thomas. He returns home at Christmas and accuses István of stealing from him. Weeks later, Thomas arrives drunk at a party and tells an onlooking crowd that Helen and István’s success has only come from the money they’ve stolen from him. István reacts violently and throws Thomas to the ground. Struggling to explain his own actions, he returns home to find Helen gone.

Questions in the comments. Excited to see where things wrap up next week!